Families respond to the Old Navy backlash and prove there’s more love than hate in the world

Over the weekend, Old Navy released an ad announcing some sweet deals for families who need new clothes for spring and summer. Much to their dismay, the ad was met with backlash from a handful of racist trolls who freaked out because it featured an interracial family. But why highlight a handful of ignorant racists when we can see how real families reacted to the ad?

In the ad, which featured a 30 percent off coupon, a smiling man holds his little boy while wrapping his other arm around his girlfriend or wife.

It’s a sweet photo, filled with beautiful looking people, and not something that’d register as even slightly controversial to most people, but this is the U.S. and we can never have nice things. Instead of noticing how lovely the people in the ad are and getting excited about the big discount, dozens of people accused the retailer of promoting an “anti-white agenda” and vowed to boycott. “My family and I will never step into an Old Navy store again,” one Twitter user wrote. “This miscegenation junk is rammed down our throats from every direction.”

Miscegenation, by the way, is a term that means “the mixing of races” and was used by many of the naysayers to describe their misguided and disgusting belief that people of different races shouldn’t be allowed to love each other. Luckily, there are more loving people than hateful ones in this country, and hundreds of people responded in support of Old Navy. Before long, people were tweeting photos of their own beautiful families and showing, as one user wrote, that “love wins, no matter the color.”

Others also tweeted their support of Old Navy, thanking them for everything from their cute clothes to low prices to commitment to representation and diversity. Haters always get more attention than the supporters, but make no mistake: there’s way more love and understanding out there than hate and ignorance.

It’s hard to believe that in 2016 there are still so many people out there who hold backwards, racist beliefs, but they definitely exist, and things like this are the proof. If anything, it’s a reminder that we have to work that much harder to be inclusive, to be good allies, and to shut down racism when we hear it or see it. Families come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and sexual orientations, and I look forward to seeing them all represented in advertising and media, because it’s 2016, damn it. It’s beyond time to make hate a thing of the past.